Monte Sereno: New beekeeping ordinance tentatively approved

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Photograph by George SakkestadMonte Sereno resident Marc Vallancey sometimes wears a protective suit when he s working with honeybees, but not always because getting stung is 'par for the course.' Vallancey and his family use their honey in coffee and on cereal, and neighbors often ask for it during allergy season.

Photograph by George SakkestadMonte Sereno resident Marc Vallancey sometimes wears a protective suit when he s working with honeybees, but not always because getting stung is 'par for the course.' Vallancey and his family use their honey in coffee and on cereal, and neighbors often ask for it during allergy season.

Photograph by George SakkestadMonte Sereno resident Marc Vallancey sometimes wears a protective suit when he s working with honeybees, but not always because getting stung is 'par for the course.' Vallancey and his family use their honey in coffee and on cereal, and neighbors often ask for it during allergy season.

Photograph by George SakkestadMonte Sereno resident Marc Vallancey sometimes wears a protective suit when he s working with honeybees, but not always because getting stung is 'par for the course.' Vallancey and his family use their honey in coffee and on cereal, and neighbors often ask for it during allergy season.

The Monte Sereno City Council has tentatively approved a new ordinance to regulate beekeeping that’s designed to encourage hobbyists while prohibiting commercial beekeeping within the city limits. The first reading of the proposed ordinance was unanimously approved on Aug. 16.

The ordinance allows residents to have two to six honeybee hives, depending on the size of their property. It also requires a 10-foot rear yard setback and a 6-foot side yard setback.

Kavin Lane resident Marc Vallancey has been a beekeeper for 10 years. He currently has three active hives, one of which is a flow hive. “My four kids are learning about bees and I keep the flow hive for them,” he said. “You don’t have to open up the hive because the honey just flows out.”

While acknowledging that everyone in his family has been stung, Vallancey said it really isn’t a problem. “It’s just par for the course,” he said.

Ironically, Vallancey is allergic to bees. “I’ve had one anaphylactic reaction in 10 years where I felt my body get itchy, but after about an hour I was fine.”

Honey, of course, is popular among people with seasonal allergies. It’s theorized that eating locally produced honey reduces allergy symptoms, but according to WebMD.com there is no evidence it actually works.

That doesn’t stop Vallancey’s neighbors from clamoring for the stuff. “I have people lined up at my door who want honey during allergy season,” he said. “My neighbor across the street trades piano lessons for honey.”

Vallancey extracts about 2 gallons of honey per hive, so there’s not a lot to go around.

“Normally you take honey out in May and October,” Vallancey said. “May honey is golden, while October honey is darker and much richer.”

After October, Vallancey lets his hives rest. But, he says, during the spring, summer and early fall the bees literally “work themselves to death.”

Although a bee’s summer life cycle is only about three weeks long, they apparently live up to the old saying “busy as a bee” during that short time.

The value comes from the fact that bees pollinate crops like apples, plums, peaches, avocados, green beans and carrots–these and other crops could disappear if bees are wiped out.

And bees are disappearing from the landscape: The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 44 percent of America’s honeybee colonies died off last year.

Vallancey believes pesticides are the culprit behind the die-off, which is known as “Colony Collapse Disorder.”

“It used to be that a hive would last three years, but now if you can keep a hive going for more than one year you’re doing very well indeed,” he said. “Last summer, I started with four hives, and two died during the year. Most beekeepers lose half their hives every year.”

That’s why keeping multiple hives is important. “Having multiple hives allows me to maintain my hives by replenishing them with bees from a thriving hive. It’s nice to know that if you have a hive that’s strong, you can use it start another one,” Vallancey said.

Meantime, the Environmental Protection Agency is considering restricting the use of the pesticide imidacloprid in an attempt to stabilize the nation’s honeybee population.

Otto Warmbier was arrested in January 2016 at the end of a brief tourist visit to North Korea. He had been medically evacuated and was being treated at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center when he died at age 22.